Uses for Pecan Shells

By Susan Revermann

Tom Brakefield/Stockbyte/Getty Images

Pecans are mainly used for the tasty nuts held within the hard exterior, but the shells are just as useful. This material can be used for seasoning food during your next barbecue or burning them as an economically friendly source of heat. You can also add them to your beauty products or use them to keep pesky slugs away from your garden.

Grilling

Add pecan shells to your briquette barbecue and allow them to burn. Place your food on the grill and allow them to cook over the pecan smoke. This acts as a natural seasoning as it adds the flavor and smell of pecans to your food items. Meat and poultry are recommended choices for this kind of grilling flavor. The result is a soft, sweet flavor.

Biofuel Source

You can use pecan shells or processed pecan shell pellets as small kindling pieces for building a fire. The processed pecan shell pellets are ground shells pressed into small chunks. This is a means of making this heating source easier and more user-friendly than having to personally shell a large amount of pecans. It is possible to produce thousands of pounds of pecans from one acre of pecan trees. So, not only do the shells not only burn well, they are also an inexpensive, renewable biofuel.

Beauty Product Additive

Place small amounts of pecan shells into a clean food processor or coffee grinder to grind them. Once they are ground into small particles or a coarse paste, you can add it to homemade soaps, body scrubs or facial cleansers. The rough granules help exfoliate dead skin cells. To make the best of your pecan shell exfoliation, dampen your skin with warm water and use soft to medium pressure to rub the product in small circles over your skin. Rinse with warm water. Exfoliate whenever you notice your skin is becoming dry and flaky. Exfoliating every day is not recommended however.

Mulch

Take your leftover pecan shells and crush them into moderately small pieces. Add the pecan bits to your soil and mix them in thoroughly to produce garden mulch. The shells help retain moisture in the soil, as well as adding an aesthetic appeal to the soil. These also help as a slug deterrent as these garden invaders do not like to navigate across the jagged edges.